Retainer spring



RETAINER SPRING Filed 0012.3, 1951 Zhwenfors 6247/ Wdiwd attorneys ?atentecl Mar. 23 1954 RETAINER SPRING George W. Julian and Donald M. Snider, Kokomo, Ind., assignors to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Application October 3, 1951, Serial N 0. 249,578

6 Claims. 1

The present invention relates to retaining or locking mean and more particularly to means for securing frictionally engageable parts together.

In electrical equipment in particular there are many instances in which components of the system are assembled and connected by the forcing of protruding contacts into recesses to complete the electrical circuits and to maintain th parts in juxtaposition. Such for example may be the assembly of radio tubes in the sockets provided therefor, the assembly of disconnect plugs for the removal of part of a system, etc. In equipment used in certain localities the vibration and shock to which the equipment is subjected may over a period of time cause the parts of the friction-held assembly to work apart. It is therefore often necessary to provide other means t maintain or lock the frictionally engaging parts together.

The problem of maintaining frictionally-held parts together is of course not limited in any manner to electrical equipment or equipment in which pronged connections are used and it is desired to clearly indicate that our invention has wide application and that it is only for illustrative purposes that it is herein described as applicable to electrical means.

As a specific illustrative example of one application of our invention, reference is made to radio tube and socket assemblies in radio receiving apparatus. Radio receivers have for some time been widely used in automotive vehicles and are subjected to much vibration in the normal operation of the car. These sets are conventionally mounted under the instrument panel with the necessary controls projecting through the panel. lhese sets were mounted in various positions depending on the space allotted and in some cases the tubes were either on their sides or upside down in the final assembly. These could therefore work out of the socket far enough to break a portion of the circuit connections even if the tube did not fall completely out of its socket.

It is therefore an object of our invention to provide means to lock separable parts together to maintain them in juxtaposition.

It is a further object of our invention to provide locking or retaining means for application to separable parts that are easily applied or removed and are adjustable to fit dill'erent sized parts.

With the above and other objects in view our invention will be best understood from an examination of the following specification and claims and the illustrations of the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation with parts being broken away and shown in section of a structure embodying our invention;

Figure 2 is a bottom plan view of the structure shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a top plan view partly in section taken on the line 33 of Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a perspective exploded view showing the parts in a position ready to be assembled.

Referring now more specifically to Figure 1, there is shown a portion 2 of the chassis of a radio receiver. This chassis is provided with a number of openings such as 4 adjacent which tube sockets 6 are fixedly secured by any suitable means such as rivets 8. The conductive prongs ii] of a tube I2 are inserted into the openings in socket to hold the tube in place and also make the necessary electrical connections to the electrodes in the tube. When this assembly is in any other position than upright the vibration will tend to loosen the tube from the socket and there is provided a retainer spring assembly to hold it firmly in position.

The retainer spring is made from a single piece 14 of strip spring stock which is punched out and bent to the desired shape. It forms two extending legs [6, the ends of which are reduced in width to form shoulders it which act as stops and a central opening 26 is punched out near the end. In the chassis on each of the opposite sides of the opening 4 is provided a U-shaped opening 22 with its central tongue member 24 projecting toward the opening 4. The central part of the retaining means is formed of a circular portion 25 from which a central opening 28 has been punched as well as a spiral opening to provide a spiral tongue 39 which is deformed outwardly to press against the top of a tube when the assembly is in place. The tip of a tube may extend up through the central opening 28.

To assemble, the tube 12 is forced into the socket and then the retaining member is placed with the tip of the tube extending through the opening 28 and with the spiral tongue 3!! resting on the tube. Inward pressure is then brought to bear on the legs I 6 forcing them inward toward the tube until they are in alignment with the base portion of the slots 22. The spring is then pushed toward the chassis until the shoulders 18 engages the chassis to bring the openings 20 in alignment with the locking tongues 24 which upon release of the legs move into these openings and lock the assembly over the tube.

By gripping the legs near the top they may be forced together and then applied into crowded areas on the chassis without the necessity of having to move the fingers down into such areas for assembly or removal of the part. The assembly is very simple to manufacture. The openings 22 in the chassis can be made at the same time that other holes are punched in the chassis and the retaining member is made from a single piece of stock which can also be punched out in on operation. The hole 28 in the center of the top portion locates the retainer and the spiral spring accommodates tubes of varying heights.

We have therefore provided a simple, economical and easily assembled retaining or locking means for parts frictionally held in juxtaposition.

We claim:

1. In means for retaining assembled parts in juxtaposition, a U-shaped member having legs spring biased outwardly and openings adjacent the ends of the legs which extend over the end of one of the parts with the legs extending down the side of the part toward the other part, shoulders on the legs adjacent the ends thereof, said second part having openings therein adjacent the juncture of the two parts to receive the ends of the legs, said shoulders preventing the ends from projecting more than a predetermined distance through the part, said openings forming projecting tongues to engage the openings in the ends of the legs when in assembled position and lock the member over the part.

2. In means for retaining assembled parts in juxtaposition, a U-shaped member extending over the end of one of the parts, openings in the other part forming tongues adjacent the juncture of the parts, the legs of the U-shaped member having openings and shoulders adjacent their ends which are adapted to be applied over the tongues but not project over a set distance into the other part to lock the U-shaped member in position, said legs being spring biased into locking position with the tongues, and resilient means at the outer end of the U-shaped member bearing on the end of the part over which the member extends to bias the parts together.

3. In means for retaining an elongated member to a relatively flat surface member, a U-shaped member extending over one end of the elongated member and down the sides, said side extensions of the U-shaped member being biased away from the elongated member and having openings adjacent their ends, said flat surface member having openings therein adjacent the juncture of the members, which openings form tongues projecting toward the elongated member and locking the U -shaped member over the elongated member when the side extensions are snapped over the tongues, shoulders adjacent the ends of said side extensions to engage the flat surface and limit the projection of the ends into the tongued openings, and resilient means on the end of the saddle member extending over the elongated member to bias the latter toward the flat surface.

4. In means for retaining a radio tube in a chassis socket, a unitary retaining member having a central section stamped out to form a spiral spring and a central opening and two leg portions extending in opposite direction from the central section and bent downwardly to lie substantially parallel but spring biased outwardly due to the resilience of the material, said leg portions having openings adjacent their ends, said chassis having openings adjacent the socket, said openings providing tongues extending toward the socket to enter the openings in the legs when the retaining member is placed over the tube to engage its outer end and the legs are forced inwardly into the chassis openings and then released to look over the tongues, the spiral spring providing axial pressure on the tube and the tip of the tube registering with the central opening.

5. Retaining means for holding one member in place with respect to another member including a U-shaped member formed of flat strip material whose legs are adapted to straddle the first-mentioned member and interlock with the second-mentioned member and punched out deformable resilient means on the base of the U-shaped member which is adapted to contact the first-mentioned member when the legs of the U-shaped member are interlocked with the second-mentioned member.

6. Retaining means for holding one member in place with respect to another member formed of flat strip material including a U-shaped member whose legs are adapted to straddle the firstmentioned member and spring into interlocking engagement with the second-mentioned member and a helical spring formed out of the fiat base portion of the U-shaped member which is adapted to contact the first-mentioned member when the legs of the U-shaped member are interlocked with the second-mentioned member.

GEORGE W. JULIAN. DONALD M. SNIDER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 579,295 Delzell Mar. 23, 1897 2,079,170 Horsley May 4, 1937 2,449,646 Emde Sept. 21, 1948 2,539,581 Holden Jan. 30, 1951 

